Following their commanding victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Los Angeles Lakers headed home for another crucial game against the Boston Celtics as part of the NBA’s customary Christmas Day slate.

The Celtics defeated the Lakers 126-115 in the most recent incarnation of the NBA’s most well-known rivalry. The Celtics went on to win.

After two baskets and a triple from Jaylen Brown, a deep hoop from Jrue Holiday, and a putback from Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics lead 12-0 when the Lakers called a brief timeout.

Following the timeout, Cam Reddish gave the Lakers a lead with a big 3-pointer. But the Lakers were providing no defensive resistance, and the Celtics were easy to make baskets and getting fouls to extend their lead to 25-10 early on.

Luckily for the Lakers, the Celtics were unable to stop Anthony Davis’ 13-point first-quarter surge. Boston eventually started missing shots, which gave Los Angeles the opportunity to cut the lead in the first quarter to 32-23.

Taurean Prince torched the floor to open the second quarter with five straight points, while Payton Pritchard scored back-to-back three-pointers for Boston.

Despite Porzingis’ early foul trouble, Davis persisted in his attack, and at 47–44, he even scored a rare three-pointer to cut the deficit to just three points.

Rui Hachimura entered the fray with a pair of dunks, but Porzingis responded with a massive three-pointer to put the Celtics up once more.

When James and Brown finally crossed paths towards the conclusion of the quarter, the play had left them both feeling uneasy. Even though the Lakers were only behind 58-57 going into the locker room, the impending halftime gave them a little extra time to catch up.

LeBron’s shot in the third quarter gave the Lakers their first lead of the game. Prince then made two more threes, but Holiday responded with one of his own, and Brown’s enormous slam drew a timeout from the Lakers.

Once Davis dunk on him on a transition, Porzingis went off and dominated the Lakers on both ends. As a result, Austin Reaves made some deep shots and the Lakers had a strong run of play.

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However, the Celtics got hotter towards the conclusion of the third quarter, and even though Davis continued to put the Lakers through a lot of pressure inside, the Lakers were behind 99-90 going into the fourth.

The Lakers were unable to reduce their deficit in the first quarter of the fourth quarter. The Celtics were still up by almost ten points with six minutes left because of their ability to turn defence into transition offence.

Davis added one more triple to complete his duty. However, because James was struggling to score, the Lakers were also struggling to generate stops, which prevented them from mounting a comeback.